Time, Timed, Timing

by | Aug 27, 2020

Our Triple “T” thought for this Thursday focuses on a few National Days of import, intervals as healthy timed workouts, and carving out up to 4 hours a week of “hybrid” activities to offset potential Dementias – like Alzheimer’s Disease.

Time:

I’m missed the movement boat to meet any of those amazing suffragettes, and boosters like Frederick Douglass, who fought the good fight for decades until our country’s 19th Amendment to the Law of our Land was ratified on August 26, 1920. A century is a goodly period of Time – our first T. And centenarians are my all-Time allstars!

Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Stanton and Alice Paul are three of that happy band of sisters (begging pardon, Shakespeare). In my world of personal training and wellness coaching; gizmos and accoutrements of training are truly color- and gender-neutral.

Suffragettes were by definition ACTIVE. Wait, wait…Lady KABOOMERs today are also active! Nothing wrong with activism when things of importance face us – right? “Act” in Latin means “done”. “Active” means motion rather than contemplation in Middle English. Remember what the legendary Amazon women of ancient Greece were known for? Athletic skill, courage, pride… Nice attributes – even for modern goddesses 🙂

Timed:

As a bad, bad Hurricane called Laura is now clobbering our Gulf Coast citizens and property, one can think back to a mother of all storms – Katrina, which hit landfall near New Orleans fifteen years ago this week. Coincidental timing of Mum Nature… Laura’s wind speed was timed at over 140 miles per hour. Rainfall was timed at over one inch per hour. Even life-sustaining water can be way too much of a good thing.

I note that Friday, September 4th is National Chianti Day; getting our Labor Day holiday weekends off to mellow starts. You’ve assuredly seen plenty of ongoing and useful discussion about pluses and minuses off noble grapes – more red than white. My stance?

Don’t start drinking if you’ve been a teetotaler ’til now. If you are a social, moderate imbiber -like me – the timing of your alcoholic intake is important. Nightcaps are generally discouraged, as alcohol absorption takes hours and a boomer might awake in the wee hours, upsetting REM sleep. I’ve read about centenarians who offered that a stiff drink on most days/early evenings – with the key letter “a’ meaning one – was part of their longevity recipe. Might that be because social drinkers are by definition – sociable? We know that social interactions are de-stressing, even if no hugs are offered for oxytocin. I don’t know, and do not particularly worry about the cause and effect of social drinking and KABOOMER longevity. What I do care about is emulating best practices of BLUE ZONERs which credibly include wine drinking in moderation.

Timing:

I am pleased that fitness practices are evolving to endorse interval based exertions; actions in both resistance and stamina moves. Active bumps of exertion and heart rate, preferably of complex moves which involve multiple muscle group (non-isolation).

HIIT, SIHIT, VHIT, and REHIT are some[of many] Timing protocols which challenge our cardio-vascular and skeletal muscular systems for advantage.. (remember that PAR-Qs are needed before such strenuous activity!) You may recall that I’m an advocate of, and proponent for TABATA regimens as Designated HIIT’ers.

As is often the case – terms in “my” profession have interesting yet distracting urban meanings. REHIT – reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training- as shared by the NIH is far different than that offered by urbandictionary…

Fit folks in Sweden have a term for similar timing sessions – FARTLEKs (which translates to SPEED PLAYs). FARTLEKs are like almost every productive training programs, as pros and cons, advantages, disadvantages are present. Principles of speed play are not limited to running, by the way. KABOOMERs are forewarned to stay forearmed to avoid over-training or injury. Remember that we want and need the quantity and quality of cytokine flows – NOT inflammatory “C-storms!”

If you are interested in protocols and work/recover periods for all these timing workouts … CALL your KOACH. Timing being what it is for KABOOMERs, brief bursts of interval training are short duration boosts – and fine caloric burners, when post exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) is factored into your personal energy equation. This kind of temporary debt – OXYGEN Debt – is healthy. Trust me.

Closing this note – just in TIME to hop on my indoor rower. KABOOM.

df

Categories

Pin It on Pinterest